Two adult United States (US) nationals contracted the Ebola virus while on a humanitarian mission in Africa amidst a large Ebola outbreak there. They were admitted to our medical center (Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA) during the first week of August 2014 for treatment. Both survived their illness and were released after approximately 3 weeks of inpatient care. We received approximately 3 days’ advance notice that the first patient would be transported from Africa to our medical center; the second patient arrived 3 days after the first. The diagnosis in each case had been confirmed virologically by detecting Ebola-specific nucleic acid in blood specimens sent to a World Health Organization laboratory in Europe; however, few details of either patient’s condition had been available to us before their arrival. Herein, we summarize the approach we used to plan for and provide laboratory diagnostic testing during their treatment.
Both patients were admitted to a specialized isolation unit that had been established at our hospital 12 years previously, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as a resource for safely quarantining, evaluating, and caring for small numbers of patients with unidentified or highly contagious infectious diseases. At the core of this unit are 3 patient rooms that are physically separate from other patient-care areas of the hospital, are maintained under negative air pressure, and have highly restricted access. A small, specially trained team of volunteer caregivers (primarily infectious disease physicians and critical care nurses) who have planned and rehearsed for incidents of this type for more than a decade staffs the facility.
The degree of containment afforded by this facility substantially exceeds CDC guidelines for managing Ebola,1 a nonairborne …